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The assigned reading was all about the different systems to teach. One interesting thing
that I found was the different positives and negatives for each system. The Letter Names and
Fixed-Do systems, for example, correlate well with symbols. However, both systems fail to
prerequisite, and both are opposed to the generalization of identical patterns from one pitch level
to another. The Number system is an improvement over the previous systems in that the numbers
can be used throughout the scales. The downside is the fact that there is no way to make a
distinction between different scales and different accidentals. The Movable-Do system provides
a case in which do is always assigned to the tonic. In this system, there are two ways of reading
minor: La-Minor and Do-Minor. Of the two, La-Minor is superior to Do-Minor when looking for
Rhythm systems appear the same in terms of positives and negatives. The Time-Value
Names system fails on a rhythmic level from the beginning. The French Time-Names system
created by Pierre Galin acts in a similar way to the Time-Value Names system, in which it fails
to encompass many different rhythms and meters. The Simplified French Time-Names system
has some positives in that it focuses on the beat rather than the note symbols. However, the
problems arise when using it with compound meter. The Kodály Method has the same problems
that the French Time-Names possessed, as well as notes lacking any duration. The Counting
Method succeeds in metric function, but requires students knowing notation beforehand. In
addition, it was created for simple-meter patterns without consideration for compound meters.
Use of this method in compound meters only serves to confuse and eliminate the essence of
compound meter. A version of Counting, created by Allen McHose and Ruth Tibbs, fixes much
of the original’s shortcomings. Each beat has unique syllable combinations for both simple and
Matthew Schulte
compound meter. However, it ends up difficult and confusing due to the combination of syllables
and no distinction in subdivisions. The Gordon Syllables changes some of the initial consonants
and considers variable-beat meters like 5/8 and 7/8. Although it experiences some of the same
difficulties as McHose and Tibbs, but took a huge step forward in the sense of variable-beat
meters. Takadimi was designed by Richard Hoffman, William Pelto, and John W. White. It
contains a lot of improvements over other systems, such as unique syllables for simple and
compound meter, uses different consonants for each beat, and focuses on such things like
quintuplets.
Throughout my life, I have used a variety of different systems for both notes and
rhythms. I used very simple systems all the way until high school, such as just tapping out the
beat and singing la. When I got into high school, I experienced other kinds of systems. We
practiced sight-reading using numbers for both major and minor scales, and counted beats using
a basic syllable like da. This was different for show choir, however, where we used numbers to
count out rhythms while dancing. Reading about all these different kinds of systems surprised
me. I had never used the solfege system or had any way of connecting a note to a syllable, so
learning there were so many kinds of systems was interesting and fun to learn about. One main
connection I made was seeing all the systems I had learned to use. Now that I have read this and
I look back on it, they didn’t help much in long-term learning. At this point in my life, using
numbers or simple syllables for rhythms is easy. Note reading and sight-reading are where I
struggle. Finding out that only 0.01% of people have perfect pitch surprised me because I know
someone who truly has perfect pitch. I do not, however, and I either need a piano to pound out
the note or I have to base everything off of C, even though I usually fail to find the right note.